Car-coupling



(No Model.

H. R. HUNT.

GAR COUPLING. I No. 370,062. Patented Sept. 20, 1887-.

E B i 'L IL/L i h WITNEEEEZE INVENTEIR Nrrnn STATES HENRY R. HUNT, OF'BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

CAR-COUPLING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 370,062, dated September 20. 1887.

Application filed April 26, 1887. Serial No. 23fi.l57. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY R. HUNT, of Boston, county of Suffolk, and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Oar-Couplings,of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters on the drawings representing like parts.

This invention relates to car-couplings of that class employing an ordinary couplinglink and pins.

This invention has for its object to provide a car-coupling with means whereby the pin, when withdrawn or elevated from its engagement with the usual couplinglink, may be locked in position ready to drop and engage the said link when the cars are brought together, the said pin at such time being released to descend by gravity into engagement with the said link.

In this my invention I e1nploy,in connection with the head of the draw-bar, a sliding pinholding bar and a sliding link-support, both the pin-holding bar and link-support being normally held forward by a spring, so that as the cars approach each other to be coupled thelink-support will hold the coupling-link in horizontal position and the pin-holding bar will keep the pin in its elevated position. The outer end of each pin-holding bar will have a depending flange or end to act as a hunter. As the cars to be coupled approach each other, and after the end of the coupling-link not then held by a pin enters the open space of the opposite draw-bar, the link-supports come together and slide back into the head of the draw-bar, and as the end of the coupling-link to enter the head of the draw-bar passes beyond the line of movement of the elevated pin the ends of the pin-holding bars come together and are pushed back into the heads of the draw-bars, that bar holding its pin in elevated position, releasing the said pin and permitting it to drop through the link.

The particular features in which my invention consists will be hereinafter more fully described, and pointed out in the claim at the end of this specification.

Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal section of asufiicient portion of two of my improved carcoupling devices to enable my invention to be understood, the bodies of the cars to which they would be attached in practice being omitted; Fig. 2, a section of Fig. 1 on line at x, and Fig. 8 a detail to be referred to.

Referring to Fig. 1, A may represent the draw-bar,and a its attached head. The head a of the draw-bar is recessed or chambered at its upper part for the reception of a pin-holding bar, to", having a depending flange, a to act as a bunter, a spring, b, normally acting to keep the pin-holding bar pushed out from the recess of the draw-bar head. The pinholding bar a is provided with a slot or opening, as a, (see Fig. 3,) one wall of the slot be ing cut down or reduced in thickness to form a somewhat sharp edge, as a, to enter an annular groove, (1, of the pin d and hold it in elevated position, as at the right of Fig. 1. The spring I) may be of metal or of rubber.

As herein shown, the head of the draw-bar has a central standard, bflwhich depends from the plate bfltfornning part of the head of the draw-bar, the pin-holding bar sliding on the plate I). The head of the draw-bar receives in it the coupling-link support Z slotted to embrace the standard If. The standard I) has extended from it a bracket, 0, to which is fastened one end of a spring, 0, the other end of the said spring being secured to the rear end of the coupling-link support 6.

The head of the draw-bar a, near its front end, is provided with a hole, through which the pin (Z is adapted to be inserted, the said pin being extended through the slot at" in the pin-holdingbar a, through theslot in the coupling-link support b, and into a hole, 10, in the draw-bar A.

The pin d at its upper end is provided with a suitable head, (1, and at its lower end the said pin is herein shown as provided with an annular groove, d into which the edge a of the pin holding bar a enters when the pin d is lifted to uncouple the cars, the said pin being thus securely held in position to engage a coupling-link, e, when the cars are brought together, the said link in practice being per manently retained in place on one car.

In the operation of my improved oar coup ling, let it be supposed that the link is held at one end by the pin of the car indicated by 20, the pin of the other car (indicated by 21) being tion until the flanged ends a of the bars a meet and are forced back into the head of the draw-bar against the springs b, the edge. a of the bar a being at such time withdrawn from the groove d, thus permitting the pin to drop by gravityinto engagement with the link 6.

I claim In a car-coupling, the draw-bar, its head,

the pin, the coupling-link, and the sliding coupling-link support, combined with the 20 sliding pin-holding bar and with springs to actuate the said support and bar to operate, all'substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name tothisspecification in the presence of two sub- 25 scribing witnesses. 1

HENRY R. HUNT.

' Vitnsses:

G. W, GREGORY, F. L. EMERY. 

